5/8/2010 3:33 AM
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Byron Smialek

Washington livable, too

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Who are we to argue with Forbes.com (the Internet arm of Forbes magazine and the Forbes 500), especially when it comes to its selection of metropolitan Pittsburgh as the Most Livable City in America?

Not a peep, mind you. If picking Pittsburgh is good enough for Forbes, it's plenty good for us.

It's a high honor, indeed, but one that has been bestowed on Pittsburgh before, and deservedly so. Just last year, The Economist magazine named Pittsburgh the Most Livable City in the United States, which might have prodded the Forbes folks to reassess their No. 10 rating of a year ago for the top spot in 2010.

In 1985, something called Places Rated Almanac made Pittsburgh its No. 1 pick, much to the delight of late-night TV comics and professional wet blankets who still thought back then that Pittsburgh's chief export was bad air.




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So what does Pittsburgh have that, say, Lincoln, Neb., and Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn. (tied for No. 9) don't have? Obviously it's not the number of rivers (3) or the number of potholes (3 million estimated.) Pittsburgh does have a lower major crime rate, an active arts community, major universities, great hospitals, low (in relative terms) unemployment, low cost of living and rising income growth.

OK, it doesn't lead in any one category, but it has the Steelers and Penguins and an improving (if only slightly) Pirates baseball club. All of that has to count for something.

So where do Greater Washington and Washington and Greene counties fit into this picture, you ask? It remains as I explained it after the Places Rated Almanac rating came out 25 years ago: If Pittsburgh is No. 1, we deserve to be

No. 1-A, because we live within hailing distance of all that good stuff and our average in-county commute to work is roughly 10 minutes depending on how sharp the road construction flag-waver is on any given spring or summer day.

Also, we've got lower property taxes than Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, mostly petty crime, cheap parking (oh, yes, check it out for yourself), good restaurants, better public schools, three colleges (wait, two are universities now), good hospitals and now a minor league baseball team with cheap tickets and affordable concessions.

For us down here near the Mason-Dixon Line, we live in the garden spot of America and don't really need Forbes to tell us what we already know.

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Also, a Happy Mother's Day tomorrow to all moms. All of you are so richly deserving.

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Anniversary waltzes

May 14 - Kitty and Charles Behm of Wind Ridge, their 60th

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Birthday candles

May 8 - Christy Hixson, Sarah Hixson

May 9 - Jean Smith

May 10 - Jerry Chambers

May 11 - Chudday Butterfield, Cody Melone, Roxanne Oglesby

May 12 - Lori Day, Charlie Watts

Byron Smialek's column appears Saturdays. Send anniversary and birthday greeting to 1312 Banetown Road, Washington, PA 15301. His e-mail address is: byretired@live.com.

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